A new report released today by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Health Reform: The Cost of Failure finds that if health reforms are not enacted, the number of uninsured Americans could reach close to 66 million.  In addition, out-of-pocket health care cost would increase by more than 35% in every state in the next 10 years.

This report utilizes the Urban Institute’s Health Insurance Police Stimulator to estimate the likely changes in coverage that each state will face if no health reforms are enacted.  In the best case scenario for New York, there would be 2.8 million uninsured New Yorkers; in the worst case scenario, there would be 3.2 million uninsured by 2019.  Family and individual out of pocket costs could range from 35.5% in the best case scenario to 54.6% in the worst.

The cost of failure would be substantial and felt in every state–people would be paying more, getting less and the number of uninsured would significantly increase.  Bottom line: health reform can not wait.